The use of real contexts and history in the teaching of statistical principles holds much attraction in the classroom. This is especially so when the examples used are in situations that are quite out of the ordinary but can lead to further investigation by the students. Previous instances of these have been used with great effect with sporting data and even courtroom decisions. In this article, a very practical problem in forensic science is tackled using elementary statistics with some spectacular and extremely useful results. The use of real contexts and history in the teaching of statistical principles holds much attraction in the classroom. This is especially so when the examples represent unusual situations but can lead to further investigation by the students. Previous instances of this have been utilized to great effect with sporting data and even courtroom decisions. This paper tackles a very practical problem in forensic science using simple linear regression, with some spectacular and extremely useful results.